Three of the most valuable private companies in the world — OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX — are simultaneously moving toward public markets, setting up what could be the most consequential wave of IPOs in a generation.
According to reporting aggregated by IndexBox, OpenAI and Anthropic are in a direct race to become the first major AI company to list publicly. OpenAI has filed for a confidential IPO following Anthropic's lead, with both companies targeting trillion-dollar valuations amid surging investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence.
SpaceX, meanwhile, is generating extraordinary demand on its own. According to one source, SpaceX's IPO has drawn orders for more than four times the shares on offer as the company nears the close of its order book — a sign of near-frenzied institutional appetite.
Not everyone is encouraging investors to go all-in on any single name. Kevin O'Leary, speaking in a segment reported by MSN, argued that betting on SpaceX, OpenAI, or Anthropic alone is a "mistake." He described SpaceX's Starlink as a profitable business, called Anthropic's Claude a tool he uses daily, and labeled OpenAI "one of the most important players" in AI — while still urging diversification.
The listings are also reshaping how markets price private companies before they debut. According to CNBCTV18, Binance has introduced a new "IPO Perpetuals" trading category tied to SpaceX and OpenAI, bringing live price discovery to assets that haven't yet hit traditional exchanges.
Complicating the picture for SpaceX is its chief executive. A report by Zachary Basu in Axios notes that Elon Musk is actively stoking far-right political controversies across Western countries on the eve of the IPO, with what Axios calls "impunity unmatched in modern corporate history."
If all three listings proceed at rumored valuations, they could collectively absorb a significant share of global IPO capital — a dynamic that analysts warn may squeeze investment flows into emerging markets, including India.
The combined push matters because it would mark the moment AI leaves the venture-capital greenhouse and enters the full scrutiny of public markets, forcing companies to answer to millions of ordinary shareholders for the first time.